2010 ties with 2005 as warmest year

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Last year tied 2005 as the warmest year since such record keeping began in 1880, new U.S. government figures indicate.

A preliminary year-end analysis by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 20th-century average of 57 degrees.

The report, released Wednesday, shows that global land surface temperatures were tied for the second warmest on record at 1.73 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average.

Ocean surface temperatures for 2010 tied 2005 as the third warmest on record, at 0.88 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 20th-century average.

"There has been some notion people have put forth that the climate stopped warming in about 2005. This year's results show that notion lacks credibility," David Easterling, who heads NOAA's National Climatic Data Center's scientific services division, was quoted as saying by The Christian Science Monitor newspaper. The analysis, Easterling said, "reinforces the notion that we're seeing an influence on the climate by greenhouse gases."

2010 was also the wettest on record globally, although rain and snowfall varied widely from region to region, the analysis shows.

Since the start of recordkeeping in the United States in 1895, precipitation across the United States has been increasing at an average rate of approximately 0.18 inches per decade.

The latest data show there were 1,302 tornadoes in the United States last year, ranking it among the 10 busiest years for tornadoes since records began in 1950.

"Hopefully, this new data will finally convince congressional climate-science deniers that global warming is real and that action is urgent," said Daniel J. Weiss, who directs climate strategy for the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, told The Washington Post. "To reject this latest evidence is like ignoring strange spots on a chest X-ray and continuing to smoke."

In related news, a report by a major reinsurance company said the United States was struck by more natural disasters in 2010 than ever before.

Last year, Munich Reinsurance said, the United States experienced 247 weather events -- blizzards, thunderstorms and floods -- partly attributable to climate change, ClimateWire reports. That compares with 1980, when total disasters totaled less than 60 and the number of damaging storms was just more than 50.

The cost to insurance companies for thunderstorm damage in the United States last year amounted to more than $9 billion, a 500 percent increase since 1980, the Munich, Germany, reinsurer said.